The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line | Mari K. Eder

Title: The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line

Author: Mari K. Eder

If you like your World War II history served with incredible stories, mediocre writing, and a jarringly political final chapter, this is your book.

The core of this book has undeniable strengths. The historical women profiled are remarkable individuals who lived through extraordinary times, and their accounts are riveting. Eder highlights fascinating figures--some familiar, some entirely new--whose bravery and grit make for compelling reading.

However, the writing was never going to be good enough for a five-star rating. The execution leaves a lot to be desired, feeling much more like a padded-out article collection than a polished historical narrative. And if you have a drinking game for every time the phrase "stepped out of line" appears, you will not survive past chapter three.

Furthermore, the author loves to issue a rallying cry for us to "hold the line" at the end. Which is fascinating, considering the entire book is supposedly about stepping out of it. Mixed metaphors aside, that is a minor grievance compared to the grand finale.

Things completely derail in the final chapter, where Eder tries to bridge historical heroines with modern figures. After preaching that true trailblazers are defined by their deep humility and humanity, she drops names like Greta Thunberg, Nancy Pelosi, and Ilhan Omar into the mix. Calling figures known for deeply partisan politics and massive global spotlights the epitome of humble humanity is quite the plot twist. It completely jars with the rest of the text and feels tacked on to appease a modern audience, crashing a historical narrative straight into a mountain of eye rolls.

Skip the modern epilogue entirely. Read it strictly for the incredible WWII histories, though you might be better off tracking down individual articles and biographies on the real heroes of the era.